PhD student on the relationship between theatre and illness

Lesley Gray, a third-year PhD student in the Department of Comparative Literature, will be presenting a paper at the Doctor, Doctor symposium, which will explore global and historical perspectives on the doctor-patient relationship, at the University of Oxford on Friday 24 March 2017.

Lesley’s paper is entitled ‘Theatre or Therapy? Twenty-four Hours in the “Kingdom of the Sick”‘. She will examine the effectiveness of theatre in tackling our response to serious illnesses, and will ask whether productions like A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer – a 2016 musical that was staged at the National Theatre – can influence our attitudes and behaviours.

The theme of medicine tangentially occurs in Lesley’s own PhD research, with her thesis currently titled What’s the Fascination? An Interdisciplinary Study of Mesmerism and the Dynamics of Power.